The World Missionary Conference met in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 1910, bringing together roughly 1,200 delegates from Protestant missionary societies to coordinate the global spread of Christian mission and to reduce competition and duplication between denominations working in the same regions. It is widely treated by historians of Christianity as the founding event of the twentieth century ecumenical movement, since its ongoing coordinating structures eventually helped produce the World Council of Churches. Its delegate list was overwhelmingly Western and Protestant, with only a handful of Christians from Asia and Africa present despite mission territory being the Conference's entire subject, a gap later ecumenical and missiological writing has treated as its central limitation.
Facts
The Event
Convened or Ordered ByAn organizing committee of Protestant missionary societies chaired by the American Methodist layman John R. Mott, who went on to lead the ecumenical movement the Conference helped set in motion. 1 When It Happened Where It HappenedThe Assembly Hall of the United Free Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. 1 Principal PartiesApproximately 1,200 delegates representing Protestant missionary societies across denominations, chiefly from Britain and North America; a small number of delegates from Asia, including the Indian bishop V.S. Azariah, whose criticism of the Conference's lack of Asian and African participants became one of its most cited moments. 2 Consequences
Lasting ConsequenceEstablished a Continuation Committee that evolved into the International Missionary Council, one of the two organizational streams that merged in 1948 to form the World Council of Churches. 1 Scholarship
How Firmly It Is Attested Learn More
The Map That Left Out a Continent
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The 1910 World Missionary Conference gathered about 1,200 delegates to plan how Protestant missionary societies would carry Christianity into the rest of the world, and almost none of the people who actually lived in that world were in the room. The overwhelming majority of delegates came from Britain and North America. The churches being planted in Asia and Africa, the ones the entire Conference existed to discuss, sent only a handful of representatives to speak for themselves.
One of those few, the Indian Anglican bishop V.S. Azariah, used his moment at the podium to say so plainly, arguing that Western missionaries too often treated national converts as subordinates rather than as equal partners in the church being built. His remarks are now one of the most frequently quoted moments of the entire Conference, cited far more often than most of the official resolutions, because they named a gap the Conference's own delegate list had already made visible without anyone needing to say a word.
That contradiction did not stop Edinburgh from becoming what historians of Christianity now call the founding event of the modern ecumenical movement. Its Continuation Committee grew into the International Missionary Council, and that Council was one of the two organizations that merged in 1948 to found the World Council of Churches. A conference remembered for uniting Christian mission across denominational lines is also remembered, by the same historians, for having done so almost entirely without the voices of the people that mission was aimed at.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Global directly: "missionary societies to coordinate the global spread of Christian mission and to reduce competition and duplication between denominations working in the same regions."
This source names Scotland directly: "Conference met in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 1910, bringing together roughly 1,200 delegates from Protestant missionary societies to coordinate the global spread of Christian mission and to reduce..."
This source names World Council of Churches directly: "eventually helped produce the World Council of Churches."
Belongs to Tradition
Related To
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.